Suhail Bhat
SRINAGAR, Jan 17: Almost 9 years have passed since the foundation stone of Kashmir’s first International Trade Centre (ITC) was laid at Pampore, the Jammu and Kashmir Projects Construction Corporation (JKPCC) is yet to start its construction.
In 2005, Government embarked on an ambitious project of setting up International Trade Centre in Pampore town of South Kashmir and identified a sprawling 378 Kanals of land.
The project was expected to provide impetus to the imbecile business setup of Kashmir by boosting the trading activities and was believed to accumulate all major business firms and corporate offices within one centre. The idea was to expose local traders and trades – handicraft items and agricultural products like Saffron – to international markets.
In 2007, then Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad along with then Union Minister of Trade and Commerce, Jairam Ramesh, laid the foundation stone of ITC at Pampore with a grant of Rs 29 crores to the project. In 2008, SIDCO under Centrally Sponsored Scheme, Assistance for State for Development of Infrastructure (ASSIDE), granted Rs 5 Crore. The funds are unutilized due to negligence from the successive State Governments.
“We have funds available but the State Government never showed any will with regards to the project,” said an official at SIDCO, adding: “We asked trade and Commerce Department for the utilization certificate but they have failed to produce it.”
The Trade and Commerce officials said the project is a clear case of lack of interest from the government. “Last year a meeting was convened which was chaired by then Chief Secretary Iqbal Khanday and a plan was finalised to take up the project on priority,” an official said, adding: “But due to unknown reasons this initiative lost pace and was finally dropped”.
An official of Jammu And Kashmir Projects Construction Company Limited said the project was a joint initiative between Centre and State and the cost was also supposed to be shared but Centre is now sidetracking and asking State to bear the 80 percent of the total project cost. “All the announcements made by Jairam Ramesh(who was a union Trade And Commerce Minister then) turned out to be hollow and a mere rhetoric,” he said.
Deputy General Manager JKPCC, Sajad Naqib said the Central Government has not yet approved the drawing despite two to three presentations. “Last year, we had submitted the drawing to the State Government but approval has not come yet,” he said, adding: “Once the Centre gives nod to the drawing we will start the construction work.”
The locals of Saffron town of Pampore blame successive governments for not showing seriousness towards ITC construction. “It would have given international exposure to our trade. Right now we have to sell it to the dealers in Delhi or Bangalore who then sells it in international market,” said Manzoor Ahmad Banday, a Saffron exporter said.
In case of ITC, Banday said, the farmers would have been able to sell the produce directly to the international customers without any intermediate person which could fetch them more money and automatically boost their morale. “The plummeting of Saffron prices are forcing people to switch over to other means of income,” he added.
Meanwhile, locals also blamed Government for allegedly granting a share of land meant for ITC to the land mafias who they said are turning the Saffron land into residential colonies. “The officials are hand in glove with land mafia and they have given a patch of land from Trade Centre to these people,” said the locals.
However, a senior Revenue official while rejecting the allegation said: “Out of 108.13 kanals which comes under district Pulwama we have allotted just 9 marlas to the farmers who had no access to their Saffron land.”
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